Tag Archives: Cosmology

The Mayan Calendar constitutes at least three calendars in contemporary terms and they are used to map different cycles. For the sake of brevity and simplicity we can summarize that the most important thing to know about the Mayan calendar system is that time is cyclical. As cycles return they tend to have the same characteristics and features. In that sense similar events can be expected to happen again. Mayan shamans can therefore make reasonably accurate forecasts within symbolic and archetypal contexts. Western scholars can attempt to do the same, but with varying results. Some of the symbolism can be misinterpreted by them, or taken too literal, or the cycles and dates are sometimes mixed up.

The Rise and Fall of Consciousness

In the Mayan creation story , the Popol Vuh [7], the sky “drops” (“falls”) at the end of each world cycle. It is then raised again. So far the sky has been raised four times and we are currently in the space between ages before the next sky is raised. As a thought experiment: if we take “the sky” as a metaphor for human consciousness, then the sky “falling” takes on significant meaning: At the end of each 5200 year world age, as consciousness diminishes; systems, structures and thought processes related to it, become unstable or “challenged”. Subsequently they start to show strain or start to crumble. The consciousness aligned to the old energetic direction would be out of sync with the new incoming direction.

Interpretations:

We could speculate that generally speaking, the outward and inward moving energies contain more or less the following characteristics in terms of identity, and that we have already observed some of these (surprising to some) movements in recent world events such as Brexit and in the United States’ presidential elections:

The Roots of a Ceiba Tree at Copán, Honduras, Central America. Photographed by Jean-Jacques Morin, September 2015.

In Mesoamerican theology the sacred World Tree stands in the centre of the world, crossing and connecting three horizontal levels, the heavens, the earth and the underworld. It has its roots embedded deep in the underworld, with its trunk straight and sturdy in the earthly realm and its branches high up in the heavens, diverging into the four cardinal directions.

According to Maya mythology the World Tree allowed human souls to come to be and this is symbolised by the White flowers of Ceiba trees, which are still found in Maya lands today. Following that, the biological human bodies which souls reside in allowed them to pass through the experience of life on earth. All souls came from one of the four cardinal directions, defining not only characteristics and personality traits, but also general destiny.